It's Your Game: An Innovative Approach to Preventing Teen Dating Violence

It's Your Game: An Innovative Approach to Preventing Teen Dating Violence

The purpose of this study is to evaluate Me & You: Building Healthy Relationships, a classroom- and computer-based healthy relationships and dating violence prevention curriculum for 6th grade students, in a large, urban public school district in Southeast Texas.

The purpose of this three year study is to evaluate Me & You: Building Healthy Relationships, a classroom- and computer-based healthy relationships and dating violence prevention curriculum for 6th grade students, in a large, urban public school district in Southeast Texas. This curriculum was adapted from an existing effective sex education and relationship curriculum, It's Your Game…Keep it Real (IYG), which was enhanced to more explicitly address teen dating violence (TDV) and encompass multiple levels of the social-ecological model (e.g., youth, family, school staff). A randomized two-arm, nested design was conducted among 6th grade students, where students receiving the curriculum were compared to students receiving usual care. Ten middle schools participated in the study, five schools were randomly assigned to receive the curriculum and five to receive usual care. Outcomes were assessed at baseline, immediately following the intervention, and 12 months after baseline. Parental permission and student assent were obtained prior to administration of the surveys. The primary hypothesis is that students who receive the curriculum will have significantly lower TDV perpetration than those who do not receive the curriculum.

Inclusion Criteria:

• 6th graders attending regular classes in ten study schools in large, urban school district in Southeast Texas

Exclusion Criteria:

• No students were excluded based on race/ethnicity, age, or gender.
• Students were informed that surveys and the intervention were only available in English and were asked to consider their comfort level with participating in the study.